


This Tiny Bubble

by Estirose



Category: Villains by Necessity - Eve Forward
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:01:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21894808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: Sam and Kaylana have a discussion. Sort of.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	This Tiny Bubble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [samalander](https://archiveofourown.org/users/samalander/gifts).



Traveling with Kaylana alone was distinctly different. He was aware that she could and would kill him, even if he saved the world. If their world was thrown out of balance by the dark she would - though he hoped she would start with something else and not him. He also knew she was trying to teach him some bit of the way of the druids, though he was sure she knew that he would never stop being part of the evil side of the balance.

At the moment, however, she was having a polite but intense discussion with a village herbalist - they'd shifted from herbs to life, death, and morality during their debate, and wandered into discussions that Sam had no interest in. Instead, he was busy admiring the herb garden, which included some herbs that were not for healing or cooking. He wondered if she'd been whitewashed and if so, what she had been doing during that time - had she kept doing what she'd always been doing, except with less poisonous plants in her garden?

Maybe he'd ask the herbalist's apprentice when she came back from her errand - it would give him someone to talk to, at least.

But Kaylana was finished before then, and they headed back to the inn. They were on the way to what the Druids apparently considered a holy site, but in the meantime, Kaylana had taken Bhazo's advice in some way - trying to relax as much as she could given her duty to the world.

"Did you have a good conversation with the herbalist?" Sam asked finally. The innkeeper had either thought the two of them were an adventuring pair or otherwise didn't have two rooms, and so the two of them only had the one room. It didn't bother Sam, and he doubted it bothered Kaylana. Maybe someday they'd be sleeping together, but for the moment it merely meant that they shared one room.

"Her views were very interesting," Kaylana said. "More neutral than good or evil, and yet a follower of Azal."

Well, that explained the poisonous plants. She probably sold them on the side. And she probably escaped the whitewashing if she could avoid notice. He had, and he was less neutral than the herbalist, it seemed.

Sam had, after all, as did Arcie. People - especially whitewashed ones - tended to assume that everyone else was good as well. Or hadn't even though about it, if they were good. The traps that had remained were those set before - the magically-entrapped purse was a fragment of the world before the Heroes had won and the world had slid too much towards the good.

Now things were back to normal, not that anyone would really notice. Sure, there would be more thieves, more monsters, more people dedicated to eradicating the same. But had things really changed for the average person?

Sam suspected that things really hadn't. Sure, some of the rogues working with Arcie - Sam and Arcie had crashed there one night - were still traumatized from being turned into merchants and dairy maids. Traumatized enough that they let Sam stay, even if the guilds had been rivals in better times. But most people who were honest had no idea of how much things had changed.

"What are you thinking, assassin?" Kaylana asked. It was part of her attempt to just go with the flow. While she and he'd talked while they were saving the world, it had not been like she had with the herbalist. They'd had a world to save and there wasn't a huge amount of time for small talk. Besides, it had been too easy to argue, and they hadn't had time for that.

"How things didn't really change for most people," Sam said honestly. "When we were going through cities, most people were going about their days without any concern for the world ending. There were still police, even if there wasn't much crime."

Mostly because they'd whitewashed the criminal populace, leaving those who only had moments of evil behind. Like the man who almost raped the girl. Or Mizzamir and his mother, which he tried not to think about. The revelation that Mizzamir was his father was not something he could get his mind around, no matter how much he tried. One didn't imagine a legendary Hero having his way with a girl and then mangling her mind - by accident, but still.

Of course, if Mizzamir hadn't, Sam wouldn't have been an assassin with a magic aim, and the world wouldn't exist anymore, so maybe it was for the better that an evil act would have caused an evil outcome - at least as far as the world was concerned.

And at least Mizzamir was gone now. Sir Pryse as well, but Sir Pryse had been part of their band as far as Sam - and he assumed everyone else - was concerned. He had gotten used to the odd knight in blackened armor, even if Sir Pryse as Blackmail had sometimes been some very odd company. it said something of how he was still the Hero he was, even trapped in his armor.

It made him wonder how Robin was, suddenly, and if he was still going to write a ballad about the group, or if he thought it better to just leave their tales to history so he wouldn't put the group at risk. He'd have to keep his ears out and see if stories about a group saving the world by being the bad guys came into play. or maybe Robin would try to make them heroic. Sam hoped not.

"But there was still some," Kaylana said. "An attempt by the world to save itself. Some people choose to live, and some people choose to die, is it not true?"

"Maybe. I once had a client whose target was herself." She'd actually sent her nephew to ask him to kill her, and her nephew had offered to take him to the client. Sam had come to visit her, and she'd offered him money to have him end her suffering. She was determined to choose her time and place, and Sam had obliged.

She died happy - and headless, per her own request. Her nephew had solemnly paid the fee, thanking him formally for carrying out her wishes. It was one of the oddest situations Sam had ever been through.

"You will have to tell me that story, someday," Kaylana said. "If you wish."

Sam shrugged. "I will." It might have to be shared to be believed, though he'd certainly told Arcie. Arcie had even believed him.

"In the meantime, I see that you are growing tired. As am I. Shall we continue this in the morning?" Kaylana asked.

"Sounds good to me," Sam replied, and the two of them rested. It would be a new day tomorrow, and more travel. More time to get to know her.

Sam couldn't wait.


End file.
